PSA: Stop trimming beef short ribs like they're pork ribs

I keep seeing guys at the shop and in online videos cutting all the fat cap off beef plate short ribs, leaving just the meat and bone. If you do that, you're losing all the flavor and moisture. Last weekend I had a customer bring in a rack from another place, already trimmed clean, and I felt bad telling him they'd dry out before he even got them on the smoker. I leave a solid quarter inch of fat on top, maybe a bit more if it's a thick cap. That fat renders down and keeps the meat from turning into jerky. Anyone else deal with people asking for them "cleaned up" and have to explain why that's a bad idea?

2 comments

2 Comments

karen_nelson4019d ago

Read a thing from one of the old school barbecue guys that really stuck with me. He said trimming short ribs like pork ribs is basically taking a perfectly good cut and turning it into a cheap steak. I leave a good quarter inch on mine too, maybe even a half inch if the cap is thick enough. The fat cap is where the flavor lives, and it slowly renders down over a long smoke to keep everything moist. People see that white layer and think it needs to go, but that's the exact part that makes short ribs special. Once you trim it clean, you're just asking for dry, chewy meat no matter how careful you are with the heat.

noah_chen1719d ago

Yo hold up, a half inch of fat cap? That's wild bro.